Letting imagination run wild

A SERIES of sketching workshops are being staged at the Bahrain National Museum as part of the popular Summer Festival in a bid to cultivate imagination inspired by the adventures of a historical king.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is, perhaps, the oldest written story on earth, experts suggest, originally written on 12 clay tablets.

The creative events, organised in collaboration with the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities, were conceptualised by a team of Bahraini artists from the Artists for a Cause programme, supported by the US Embassy, Bahrain.

The workshops are entitled

• Conceptual Sketching: Visualising Dilmun

• Conceptual Sketching: Visualising Ziu-Dori

• Conceptual Sketching: Visualising the Epic of Gilgamesh and

• Conceptual Sketching: Visualising Enkidu.

They are being conducted by interior design lecturer Zainab Abdulmohsen, artist and journalist Zainab Almahdi, artist Fatima Abdulhalil and founder of Cartoon Planet and the Artist for a Cause programme Mohamed Almahdi.

“We found it very interesting to imagine and illustrate the elements of the epic of Gilgamesh,” said Mohamed, a 31-year-old digital artist and graphic designer who published his first digital art book in 2007 called Take and Give.

“A great part of the epic of Gilgamesh took place in Dilmun, the ancient civilisation of Bahrain.

“We began this series of workshops by highlighting the civilisation of Dilmun and its surroundings, then introducing the tale’s protagonist, King Gilgamesh, and his beloved wife Ziu-Dori and, finally, his best friend Enkidu.

“Visualising all the above in a creative way highlights the importance of Bahrain’s ancient history and allowing the young to appreciate the legacy of our beloved country.”

Dilmun is one of the oldest trading posts that occupies a significant place in the mythology of Mesopotamia, featured in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Dilmun is believed to be the residence of the immortal Ut-napishtim whom Gilgamesh seeks in search of the secret of immortality.

Dilmun was also mentioned in the saga of Enki and Ninhursag where it was portrayed as an ‘earthly paradise and a land of purity’.

Two of Bahrain’s three UNESCO World Heritage Sites – the Burial Mounds and Qal’at al Bahrain – date back to the Dilmun era.

Mohamed conducted workshops on the era and the epic of Gilgamesh at last year’s Bahrain Summer Festival on ‘How to Write and Illustrate a Short Story’, in collaboration with Maryam Abulfateh and author Husain Khalil.

“It’s great for our team to participate in the Bahrain Summer Festival for the second year,” added Mohamed. “We’re happy to participate with a series of workshops that focus on the ancient history of our kingdom.”

The workshops will end on Friday and Saturday. The course is open to those aged 15 to 25.

“The workshops focus on freehand sketching techniques, using one point and two point perspectives, in Bahraini heritage interior and architectural spaces,” explained Zainab Abdulmohsen, a 29-year-old Ahlia University interior design lecturer, who specialises in hand sketching and building documentation through photographs, measured drawings and detailed sketches.

She conducted the first workshop and said: “The participants learned conceptual sketching that emphasised key elements such as form, texture, circulation and spaces. They also learned how to reflect their personal perception in a sketch to communicate a message inspired by Dilmun’s civilisation.”

Afterward, participants visualised Dilmun’s Epic of Gilgamesh to learn elementary skills of story creation, conceptual sketching, character drawing and representing the tale’s elements and characters in a creative aspect.

In 24-year-old Zainab Almahdi’s course, attendees learned how to depict the strong and brave woman Ziu-dori, the fictional wife of King Gilgamesh.

During her workshop, participants learned how to conceptualise the character from scratch by looking at historical accounts and existing archaeological artefacts from the period including statues, relief sculptures and jewellery.

“We explored how to create Gilgamesh’s wife, a character that does not exist as he does not have a wife in the story, based on the things we know and using creativity to make up a personality and motivations for the new character,” explained Zainab Almahdi, who studied economics and German language in Georgia State University in the US. “Every person who came to the workshop ended up with their own unique version of the fictional Zui-dori and they were all interesting and intriguing in their own way.

“Because the character is a blank slate, we could envision her to be a human being, or a priestess, a goddess, or a combination of all three.”

She added that it makes her happy to see informative and fun workshops available for everyone throughout the festival. “They give a chance for local artists and skilled artisans to come under the spotlight and to spread their knowledge to the next generation,” she added.

The third workshop featured participants sketching based on the historical texts of the Dilmun civilisation with Fatima, 27, who specialises in character drawing.

In the final workshop with Mohamed, people will learn the elementary skills of sketching, character drawing and imagination while visualising the tale of Enkidu, Gilgamesh’s best friend.

Visit www.culture.gov.bh to register and for further details on other Bahrain Summer Festival events.